Record number of Korean travellers in 2000

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A record number of 5.15 million high-spending Koreans travelled overseas last year, up by 29% or 1.15 million from a year earlier, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) has reported. This will be welcome news to duty-free operators in Japan, Thailand and China, the main destinations for Korean tourists.

The previous record dates back to 1996 when 4.73 million Koreans travelled overseas amid the travel boom which began in 1995. Then Korean travel began to decline in 1998 as the country was battered by the Asian financial turmoil in late 1997.

According to the KCS figures, traveller numbers bottomed out at 2.84 million in 1998, but rose to about 4 million in 1999 as the economy showed a strong recovery.